The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-08-31
SHOT IN THEIR GOOD CLOTHES.
The Gorgeous Uniforms I'm which French
Soldiers Have Gone To Battle.

The Gorgeous Uniforms In which French
Soldiers Have Gone to Battle.
The soldiers of Napoleon /. went into
battle in their dress uniforms. His
gorgeous infantry charged the enemy
in fantastic CATERS with forty buttons,
and the guard wore into the fight hats
which were decorated with plumes q
yard long. Every private wore epau.
lets. But In our great war, says the
Youths Companion, even the officers
discarded epaulets except for the most
ceremonious occasions. and replaced
them with simple shoulder straps.
Like field of ripe wheat" says a
French historian, waved the long
plumes of the guard when they went
into battle. and the enemy, recognizing
at q distance these intrepid plumes.
cried in indescribable terror: 1t is
the guardp And the battle was half
won already"
During the campaign of 1859, in
Italy, the Third Regiment of the
French grenadiers, supported by the
Zouaves, were drawn up facing 10000
Austrians during four hours under q
broiling sun.
They were hardly comfortable, these
grenadi.rs, for they were compelled
to wear their immense bear-skin shakos
every moment of this time. to say moth
ing of their heavy braided coats and
the knapsacks upon their backs. Under
the murderous sun some of the grena-
diers had taken off their shakos.
Gen. Wimpifen, who commanded the
brigade, ordered the great hats to be
replaced.
"The grenadiers," he said, fight in
Their shakos. Cost what it may, We
must hold our own. And now, boys,
forward"
The grenadiers saved the day at
Magenta, and the next day the big
bear-skin hats could be counted on the
field of battle by hundreds.
"One would think there had been a
battle of bears here" some one said,
with melancholy smile, in passing the
scene.
Several days later, on the plain of
Medole. the Emperor Napoleon Ill,
riding across the field, found that Gen.
Anger, who commanded q battery
which was the key of the whole en-
gagement, had lost his left arm, and
that his shoulder had been broken by
a shot from an Austrian cannon. The
General, surrounded by surgeons, was
dying beneath tree on the plain. He
was still conscious, although speech
less.
The Emperor, greatly moved and
wishing to convey some sign to the
l. IoA |, 4 IL
his death to the rank of General of
Division for his bravery on the field,
unfastened one of his own epaulets
from his shoulder and put it into the
dying mans hand. The General
smiled family, pressed the epaulet to
his lips, and died.
The Emperor reioined his staff with
one shoulder bare of its epaulet, and
the rumor quickly spread abroad that
he had had the epaulet shot away.
Even in the war between the french
and Germans, in 1870, the officers still
wore epaulets in the field. At the
battle of Gravelotte a squadron of
French Dragons charged a column of
Prussian hussars who had taken them
in the flank.
In the violence of the shock two of
the opposing horsemen, both dismount-
ed, found themselves cut Off from the
rest of the commands. One was q
Major OF the German hussars and the
other an Adjutant of the French dra-
goons. They faced each other, sabers
in hand. The Major dealt the Adiu-
tant terrific blow. The Frenchman
parted it, but the Germans weapon
struck his epaulet and cut it off; the
saber broke in two like a piece of
glass.
The Adjutant sprang upon his dis
armed enemy and placed the point of
his saber to his throat.
Surrender" he cried. "You are I'M
armed"
Kill me-" said the hussar, coolly,
dropping his broken sword and reach
ing as if for his revolver. Il am not
unarmed; 1 have q revolver.
"Bahl" said the Frenchman. "There
isn't shot in it.
1t was true, and the Adjutant led his
prisoner away. 1t is hard to tell which
more to admire-the officer who, in or
der that his fate might be death rather
than surrender, resorted to heroic
subterfuge, or the one who preferred
to risk his own life rather than strike a
disarmed enemy.